Sarah chatted with Christopher Blevins right after he got back from his whirlwind of a trip to Brazil where he won the first Olympic cross-country race of the season. The 26-year-old American former Short Track World Champion last won a World Cup XCO back in 2021 in Snowshoe, but he came out with all cylinders firing in Brazil with the goal of qualifying for the Paris Olympics and getting as many points for the United States to secure two spots for the men's team.

From getting stung by the most poisonous caterpillar in the world, to recovering on downhills, dealing with cramps, life on Specialized Factory Racing, to what he thought of the cross-country race courses in Brazil, this was a really interesting conversation. We also got into why he switched to mountain biking from BMX, his creative pursuits outside of cycling, and being a mountain biker right now in the US.

We discuss our picks for this weekend's race, explain why your season won't be as easy as you think, and who are the likely winners.

While Henry enjoys riding shorter travel cross-country bikes, he doesn't follow the pro circuit all that closely. In this episode, Sarah gives Henry an idiot's guide to XC and why there's more to it than meets the eye.

We chat about how he got into riding as a teenager, how he bounced back and forth chasing summer in the UK and New Zealand for years, his time as a World Cup mechanic, why he left GMBN, some of his endurance feats including an attempt at the FKT riding across all of New Zealand and riding 1,000,000 feet in a year, and much more. Henry's an incredibly introspective person and so this was a really interesting conversation.  

Romain Dompnier and Madison Wallinger explain what goes into a season of in-depth mountain biking coverage, the power of archetypes and how race coverage can help the sport grow.

Remi Gauvin has seen it all in racing, from their early days as a promising junior to climbing the ranks of Enduro. In this chat we cover his roots in downhill, what it really takes to do both disciplines and how the sport is changing - for good and for bad.

Tara Llanes has been wildly accomplished at the high levels of multiple sports - BMX, MTB, and wheelchair basketball, not to mention wheelchair tennis - and she also has a whole lot more life experience to share. In 2007, in what she thought was her second-to-last race before retiring from her career as a mountain biker, a devastating crash changed things for her.

She spent the next several years going through intense processing, a move to Canada, some serious mental low points, a growing interest in tennis, and much more before she found herself on the basketball court to improve her speed as a wheelchair tennis player. Wheelchair basketball stuck. Tara clearly knows how to train hard, and that continues to take her far. She's now preparing for her second Paralympics, this one in Paris, and plans to then step away from high-level competition - retiring the right way this time.

Brian and I sat down with Tara in Vancouver, where she lives, to talk about that whole process. While we imagined this episode would end up the same length as most of our podcast episodes, we just kept finding more conversation. Tara is clearly smart, capable, an incredible athlete, and seriously strong as a person, and we were glad for every minute she spent with us.

Amy Ertel and Steve Vanderhoek are two people who bring a lot to our sport: both in terms of their excellent riding and when it comes to their jobs and risk preparedness. Amy is a nurse, Steve is a firefighter, and both are extraordinary riders.

Dario and Brian are joined by Alvin from our sister publication Velo to discuss the products we saw, the factories we toured, and the food we ate at this year's Taipei Cycle Show.

Could you choose your bike out of a lineup? If so, how? Whether it's strange suspension setups, cockpit changes or just particular tires, we all have things that make our bikes our own.